Sunday, September 11, 2011

Books: The Gentlemen's Hour by Don Winslow

Boone Daniels is the archetypal California surf-bum, whose laid back personal hides a powerful intellect. He is a former cop turned private investigator, who quickly gets involved in some cases that alienate him from longtime friends. First comes a matrimonial case where a rich friend of Daniels asks him to follow his wife, suspecting infidelity. Then comes another case that haunts him, a fellow surfer and man of great humility and dignity in addition to being a friend of Daniels is killed by a gang member outside a bar. Daniels, in desperate need of cash, it hired on by the defense team, and slowly begins to unravel how the two cases revolve around "Chinatown" type land fraud. Alienating his friends in the surfing community and the police force, Daniels joins with an unlikely group of allies to crack a case that is much larger than it seems. This is another excellent Winslow adventure, a sequel to The Dawn Patrol (although reading that book first is not necessary.) Daniels is a very appealing character, someone we really we really want to root for to win against all odds. Winslow's snarky humor ties it all together, he is a riot to read and uses short chapters and snappy dialogue to excellent effect. The Gentlemen's Hour: A Novel - amazon.com